When Maqbool Bhat was hanged on February 11, 1984, the news shocked people across the Valley, there were a few protests and calm returned soon. Though Bhat was a top leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, he became a household name in Kashmir only after his hanging in Tihar. Bhat?s body was never returned to his family. The anger triggered by the hanging may not have surfaced immediately but it certainly led to a simmering rebellion. Five years later, when an armed movement broke out in Kashmir, Bhat, his story and politics had already become its rallying motif. The first grave in Srinagar?s ?martyr?s graveyard? was kept vacant, waiting for Bhat?s mortal remains.